100 Days Report Card Bullshit

[Michael]

Seems like it is all the rage in the mass media (and the political blogs) to do 100 day report cards on Obama. Personally, I think the exercise is too stupid to partake in.

Instead, let us review President G.W. Bush's first 100 day report card. I think that will show the silliness of the exericise.

He is doing very well with the public. There were a lot of polls this week. If you put them all together, the average is about 60 percent saying they approve of him -- and that's pretty good in absolute terms. If you look at our poll, we have a monitor there, 56 percent say they approve of George Bush's job performance so far. Twenty-seven percent disapprove -- very comparable to what his father got 12 years ago, to what President Clinton got eight years ago. In fact it's better than President Clinton got eight years ago because the disapproval ratings are lower.
...
Well, a consistent thing in what people volunteer is they like this man personally. They like his style. They like his honesty, his integrity, his calm dignity. He is a low-maintenance president.
...
I think he is doing fine. I think that we compare presidents to their predecessors. That's what George W. Bush has going for him more than anything else. Gerald Ford benefited because he was not Richard Nixon when he came to office. George Bush the first suffered because he wasn't Ronald Reagan, especially among Republicans and conservatives. They had doubts about him. George W. Bush is the beneficiary, especially among the Republicans the intense conservative support that Andy Kohut spoke about -- because he is not Bill Clinton. He was the agent, the instrumentality of restoring the White House to pristine possession of the party of Lincoln and whoever else.

Source (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/media/100days/)

I think that sums it up nicely. I especially like the part about how Bush is so "likable" and his "honesty and integrity". The "restoring the White House to pristine possession of the party of Lincoln" is a nice touch too. :lol:

Pretty much every word written here turned out to be pure bullshit (except the part about Presidents being judged by the standard of their predecessors - that's true and that accounts for about 95% of Obama's present approval rating).

How much of the 100 day report cards being written about Obama are equally bullshit?

Fact is, one can't do a reasonable assessment of a Presidential record based on the first 100 days.

[Daktoria]

Heh. Speaking of which, how about just taking a peek at the ideological difference between the liberal New York Times and the conservative Boston Globe about FDR's landmark "100 Days" (watch out for the colors, it might look like you're on shrooms for a psychedelic moment or two):

NYT Source (http://100days.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/16/how-fdr-made-the-presidency-matter/)How F.D.R. Made the Presidency Matter
By Jean Edward Smith (http://100days.blogs.nytimes.com/author/jean-edward-smith/)

When President-elect Barack Obama takes office Tuesday he will be facing high expectations. Americans expect their presidents to hit the ground running, and the initial 100 days set the tone for a president’s first term.
That was not always the case. Until the adoption of the Twentieth Amendment in 1933, presidents were not inaugurated until March 4. Congress often did not convene until the following December, and a president’s first message to Congress was usually delivered at that time. Even then a president was not expected to take the lead. His constitutional responsibility was to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed,” and the public assumed that the legislative initiative rested with Congress.
There were two exceptions. Abraham Lincoln called the newly elected 37th Congress into special session in July 1861 to deal with the rebellion in the South. And in 1933 Franklin Delano Roosevelt ordered the 73rd Congress to meet Thursday, March 9 — five days after he had taken the oath of office — to deal with the nation’s banking crisis. Roosevelt’s mythical 100 days, the gold standard by which all subsequent presidents have been measured, date not from the time he was sworn in but from the date Congress convened. Congress eventually adjourned in the early morning hours of July 16, 1933, exactly 100 days later.
While many Americans think Roosevelt had the entire New Deal in mind for the special session, he in fact initially assumed that Congress would deal only with the banking crisis and then adjourn. The president had closed the nation’s banks by executive order and, like Lincoln in the Civil War, needed legislative authority to confirm his action and reorganize the financial system.
When Congress met on March 9, F.D.R.’s Emergency Banking Act was introduced in the House with the ink still wet. There were no committee hearings, no debate, no amendments. The measure was whooped through with bipartisan support and no roll call. Most members had not read the bill, and took on faith what the leadership presented. Three hours later the bill passed the Senate (73-7), and an hour later Roosevelt added his signature. The entire legislative process, from the bill’s introduction in the House to the president’s signature, took less than six hours.
Now, with the legislative tide running so strongly in his favor, Roosevelt decided to hold Congress in Washington until the bulk of the New Deal could be enacted. And consummate politician that he was, Roosevelt feinted right before turning left.
The second measure he sent to Congress was an economy bill to reduce Federal expenditures across the board. Government salaries were slashed 15 percent, and veterans’ benefits scaled back. This was scarcely the financial stimulus the economy required, but it won the hearts of conservative legislators. “I’m for giving the president whatever he wants,” said Senator Arthur Capper, a Kansas Republican.
After consolidating his position, F.D.R. opened the New Deal floodgates. There was no preconceived order in which legislation was sent to Capitol Hill. As soon as a measure was ready, Roosevelt sent it forward — carefully preparing the ground beforehand with the Congressional leaders who would be responsible.
Roosevelt was not without a sense of humor. The third measure to go forward was a request to amend the Volstead Act to permit the sale of beer and wine. “I think this would be a good time for a beer,” the president told his aide Louis Howe. The 21st Amendment, which repealed Prohibition, was not adopted until December 5, 1933, but Roosevelt’s proposal provided interim relief.
Bills to reorder the nation’s agriculture, housing and mortgage markets followed in short order. Acreage allotments, price supports and crop set-asides reshaped the face of American agriculture. Farm mortgages were refinanced and the Farm Credit Act provided operating funds at low interest rates. The urban housing market was rescued with the establishment of the Home Owners Loan Corporation, which purchased the mortgages of distressed home owners, provided money for taxes and repairs, and set repayment schedules over 30-year terms at 5 percent interest. The loan corporation assumed one-sixth of all home mortgages in the United States, and soon made home ownership a goal to which most Americans could aspire.
On March 21, Roosevelt asked Congress for $500 million for unemployment relief. Congress complied and the president appointed Harry Hopkins to administer the program, the first ever by the federal government.
Roosevelt was personally interested in preserving the environment and providing temporary employment for the nation’s youth. Legislation to establish the Civilian Conservation Corps was also introduced March 21, and shepherded by the president himself through both houses. It was signed into law 10 days later. Over the next six years 3 million young men were put to work reclaiming the country’s natural resources. The men lived in government camps, food and clothing were provided, the Army supervised the camps, and the men were required to send 80 percent of their pay back to their families.
Legislation to establish the Tennessee Valley Authority, providing cheap electric power to one of the most poverty stricken regions of the country, was introduced April 10 and became law five weeks later.
The excesses of Wall Street, blamed by many for the Depression, were reined in with the passage of the Truth in Securities Act on May 27. “If the country is to flourish,” said Roosevelt, “capital must be invested in enterprise. But those who seek to draw upon other people’s money must be wholly candid regarding the facts on which the investor’s judgment is asked.”
To make American farm products more affordable on the world market, F.D.R. took the United States off the gold standard, and Congress passed follow-up legislation nullifying the clauses in private contracts that required payment in gold.
The Glass-Steagall Act, one of the most far-reaching economic measures ever enacted, required banks to divest themselves of securities operations; gave the Federal Reserve Board the authority to set interest rates; and established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to guarantee individual bank deposits, assuring the average citizen that his money would be protected by the government.
The capstone of the 100 days was the passage by Congress of the National Industrial Recovery Act — an omnibus proposal governing the whole range of industrial recovery. The act authorized business to establish production codes controlling prices and output, guaranteed labor’s right to bargain collectively, and stipulated that industry codes should set minimum wages and maximum hours. It also provided $3.3 billion for public works (roughly $50 billion currently) as a fiscal stimulant.
The 100 days that Congress was in session in 1933 shattered all records for legislative activity. Roosevelt had sent 15 messages to Capitol Hill requesting action, and Congress had responded with 15 historic pieces of legislation.
More significantly, perhaps, the president had become the principal player in the legislative process, and the federal government had become the primary guarantor of the nation’s economy.
No president since has faced so desperate a financial situation, and none have enjoyed such mastery of the legislative process. President-elect Obama confronts a national crisis of significant proportions. The question is, can he can replicate the leadership style and the wisdom of Franklin Roosevelt?

Boston Globe Source (http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/02/18/the_legend_of_fdrs_first_100_days_in_office/)PATRICK MANEY
The legend of FDR's first 100 days in office

By Patrick Maney | February 18, 2009
HISTORICAL myth always has an advantage over truth by virtue of its head start. But the legend of Franklin Roosevelt's famous first 100 days has become so overblown that it may be crippling the ability of leaders to be effective, let alone achieve the instantaneous greatness for which millions are now pining. This may be a case when bad history makes for bad politics, to paraphrase the English historian Christopher Hill.
The problem with the 100 days paradigm is that it obscures the vital role played by Congress - Republicans as well as Democrats - in crafting the First New Deal. It's too FDR-centric, what with Roosevelt and his brain trust bending a pliant Congress to their will within months of taking power. No less an authority than Brookings Institution scholar Stephen Hess proclaimed that FDR had "everything ready to go and Congress was perfectly happy to pass it before they had even read it."
The real 100 days - March 9 to June 16, 1933 - bear little resemblance to the legend. True, Roosevelt inspired a nation as perhaps no president ever has, and yes, the early months of his administration produced an outpouring of constructive legislation unequaled in the nation's history. But the early New Deal was hardly a one-man operation. As often as not, Congress, not Roosevelt, forced the action. Of the 15 major bills that constitute the First New Deal, most originated in Congress and many had legislative histories predating Roosevelt's assumption of power. There were even some key measures FDR initially opposed.
Few New Deal agencies are more closely identified with Roosevelt than the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. But when the idea of insuring bank deposits first came up, Roosevelt was opposed. To guarantee the savings of all depositors, no matter how good or bad their banks might be, he insisted, would encourage sloppy and dishonest banking practices. When it became clear Congress would act with or without his support, Roosevelt endorsed the measure, and for three-quarters of a century the FDIC has served as the backbone of the banking system.
But what about lawmakers acting so fast they never bothered reading the measures they were enacting into law? It is true that most measures passed in record time and with a minimum of debate. But that's because most legislators, having debated the issues for so long, had already made up their minds. No early New Deal measure touched the lives of more hungry and jobless Americans than the Federal Emergency Relief Act. But an almost identical measure had been under almost continuous consideration since 193l, when a bipartisan group, led by Wisconsin Senator Robert La Follette Jr., first introduced it. By the time FDR assumed office, federal relief to the unemployed was a forgone conclusion.
The famous Tennessee Valley Authority had an even longer pedigree, dating back to the years just following World War I. That's when congressional progressives, led by Nebraska Senator George Norris, launched a campaign to convert a federally owned dam at Muscle Shoals, Alabama, into a facility to provide cheap electricity and flood control to hundreds of thousands of residents along the Tennessee River. Six times Norris and his supporters proposed measures to create a TVA and six times they met defeat, twice by presidential veto. Finally, in 1933, supporters of public power found an ally in the White House, and their dream became a reality.
Roosevelt's first Congress was not only eager to act but also was infused with a remarkable spirit of bipartisanship. Some of the most ardent New Dealers were Republicans like La Follette and Norris. They have no counterparts in today's GOP, which helps explain why President Obama's bipartisan outreach is meeting such a chilly reception.
Of course, Roosevelt was a presidential giant. But his real genius lay in inspiration, not legislation. He was a kind of Wizard of Oz, infusing Congress and the public with the confidence to do what they had been capable of doing all along.
This is no small achievement. But it's a different achievement than history usually gives him credit for.
Obama needs to be free of a legend that practically guarantees eventual disillusionment when new presidents fall short of Rooseveltian goals that not even their namesake was capable of achieving.

[Michael]

Of course, Roosevelt was a presidential giant. But his real genius lay in inspiration, not legislation. He was a kind of Wizard of Oz, infusing Congress and the public with the confidence to do what they had been capable of doing all along.
This is no small achievement. But it's a different achievement than history usually gives him credit for.
Obama needs to be free of a legend that practically guarantees eventual disillusionment when new presidents fall short of Rooseveltian goals that not even their namesake was capable of achieving.


I'll certainly agree with that. Roosevelt was a great inspiration, not necessarily a legislative genius.

Great post Daktoria - though the colors are a bit radical on a Sunday morning! Had me tempted to go see if we got any 'shroomies' stached away. ;)

Btw, when it comes to the 'politics' of American media, I consider the NYTimes to be schizophrenic-like. On some issues, it clearly has a heavy liberal bias. But sometimes, they go the other way and show a strong bias for the Republicans (specifically, not 'conservatives'). For example, the NYTimes practically led the attacks on Clinton during the 1990s (many which were essentially baseless) - that's not the act of a truly 'liberal' newspaper.